You're gonna make it after all

With my impending move to the Midwest I feel I must pay homage to one of my favorite classic shows. After all, I am following in Mary Tyler Moore's footsteps. Mary was single (check), 30 years old (a couple years to go, but check), and moved to Minneapolis (a large, snowy, midwest city, so check). Mary was the independent career woman...if not the first, then definitely the coolest.

Reading the Tea

I'm moving to Chicago in August which means it's time to start going through all my shit. Today I started combing through my books, deciding what to keep and what to toss, when I stumbled upon Tea Cup Reading: How to Tell Fortunes by Tea Leaves. A small, hardbound book published in the 1920s, it offers a description of the tea reading "principles" followed by several pages of "symbols and their significations." I love this book. It smells musty and ancient. The pages are brown and delicate. It's mysterious and other-worldly. But what I love most about it is that it belonged to my namesake: Auntie Maggie.

(Grandma Kathy and Maggie)
Margaret Horn was my grandmother's best friend and partner in crime. She was a free spirit, often silly, adventurous and bold. I never met Auntie Maggie, but I imagine her at the kitchen table, this book by her side, peering into her tea cup and divining her future.